Another kind of bi-polar

On one side there is my mom saying don't take yourself too seriously. On the other side is my dad's personality striving for perfection.
Him and I were building a bird cage one time when I was a kid. After giving me permission to do it and agreeing to take me to the lumber store to get wood for the frame, he sat down and began re-drawing my roughly sketched blueprint, this time including each detail of the structure complete with notched grooves that made the wood flush wherever two pieces met. These were particularly complex to make, especially compared to just getting all the pieces nailing them together as I had pictured it. In my head the goal was the end result and the process was just an inevitable adventure standing in between. Wether from experiences like this or wether it's hard-wired in me, I do also enjoy and take pride in perfection. I often live in the details of a creative project that no one who observes the work would recognize let alone give two penny's for. Not to say that they're unimportant. It's the part of me that holds myself to a higher standard. The one that asks if I can turn my Bs and Cs into As instead of being happy they're not Fs as my dad did once.
While my tendency is to be goal oriented I view myself as being perfectly split down the middle with regard to these opposing perspectives. Often caught between the details and the bigger picture.


- Posted from the Road